(Un)Tenable Security

Jeff makes a good point on parks with security. Its been happening for awhile now at many parks and they have it down to a science. There is no reason Cedar Point can't look at these parks for examples of how to do it correctly. I went to Halloween Horror Nights twice this weekend as well as the University of Florida game on Saturday. All total I probably spent 60 seconds in a line waiting to walk through a metal detector. Plus Universal is now using x-ray machines for bags which I thought would be really slow but its still a quick experience.

The fact that bad things happened elsewhere and that the park had a bomb threat called in last week doesn't mean it's OK that security measures taken at the park are so inefficient. It's not a new thing, they should be getting better at it by now. I waited about 20 minutes to get in the resort entrance Friday but since I planned extra time for their inefficiency to make sure there was no way we could miss Mean Streak we still had enough time to get two rides in. One of my kids suggested going to the Windseeker entrance but I was concerned that we might walk all that way just to find no line improvement and the time spent walking may have mitigated any improvement form standing in line less. When we first walked up I only saw one person wanding. There were two when we made it to the front of the line. We were told to walk ahead of some other people to get wanded since we had no bags and I had already emptied my pockets.

I'll chime in as well. We went Saturday night at around 9pm. (We are passholders and live ten minutes away). Security amounted to: my gf being asked if she had anything in her pockets as she's emptying the contents onto the table. She gets wanded, upper body only then waved through. I already had my keys out and everything, I go to put everything on the table and I'm told to just go on through. As I approach the ticket turnstile I'm pulled back to be wanded. With everything in my pockets. And again, I'm waved through.

It's a joke. And the park is needlessly complicating what for any other park is common sense. They can figure out how to squeeze Valravn into a small space but not security?

Also, please stop using the excuse that it's their first weekend. I hate that. Halloweekends is not new. 20 years, the park should be well prepared and staffed. That was not the case this weekend.

The ¨checks¨ were so carelessly done and they didn't even check all the bags. I heard people ask ¨I was in the park earlier, can I just go through?¨ and surprisingly they just waved them through. Even worse, I saw people walking right past security. There were so many loop holes so if you really wanted to bring contraband in the park, you easily could.

Jeff said:

I went to Epcot for lunch today, Food & Wine Festival (because that's how I roll)

Were you rolling before, or after the wine ;)

Also anything good? I'm still keen on trying new wines, but every time I see a giant aisle of 400 different Pinot Noirs, I just give up and get a 20 dollar bottle of whatever.

Which is probably the way to go, as countless experiments over the years have demonstrated that most, if not all, wine nerds can't actually differentiate between "good" and "bad" wines.

^You're not wrong. The problem is so many new ones I try just suck, so it's 20 dollars wasted. There's only been a few I've found that are repeat purchases.

I have found that I prefer the $8 bottle of Moscoto to the $4 bottle when I'm at Walmart.

I read $8 bottle of Monsato :P

Go paying attention to the news...

But I know what you're getting at. Sadly Barefoot really isn't that bad. I've found though that Kendal Jackson's Vinter Reserve Pinot Noir for $18 is one of my favorites ever. I drank a whole bottle alone once and didn't notice it haha

I know pretty much squat when it comes to wine other than the few things I've figured out I like. My husband has started trying his hand at homemade wine. The first batch was OK. Peach and a bit on what I think they call the dry side. Reminded me of the one time I tried champagne years ago. We're waiting on the second batch to age a bit and I'm really looking forward to that one it was quite yummy when tested before aging. Red plum...mmmm...I sure hope all is going well in the basement.

Bluestreaker said:

On Friday evening we arrived at the front gate around 5:40. I don't think we waited over five minutes to get through security and into the park.

I had a similar experience. Very short wait at the front gate around 5:50pm.

MaverickLaunch said:

Went to the park this weekend for our annual HW opener and Pointfest trip.

If there was any small chance that we would be renewing our Platinum passes for next year, it was eliminated after this trip...

Well they must of heard you because security wasn't near ANY of the gates when we went on Sunday or maybe they feel that the terrorists take off that day.

**I do have a story that will make some of you chuckle on the Platinum pass renewal situation. My family tried desperately yesterday to renew our Platinum passes at the Season Pass center yesterday (to take advantage of the Fast Lane Plus offer) and was told that Cedar Point doesn't have a chip reader for credit cards, anywhere in the park, to pay for season pass renewals.This was confirmed at Guest Services when we went over there. Imagine that in 2016. I guess they'll have for our money in slow online monthly installments like we've done in the past. Hahahaha! I'm sure management would be happy to know they lost out on almost $800. Yes, I will email the park as I've done in the past. I suggest you do so also if you have a problem.

^ Couldn't they still swipe? Or does your card not have the strip anymore? I thought most cards in the US had a strip and a chip right now.

That seems odd. We do not have any chip readers at work either. We have never had a problem with swiping a card that has a chip.

I can confirm with many others here that the wait at the front gate Friday was short. This doesn't mean that the security checks were thorough necessarily.

djDaemon said:

... countless experiments over the years have demonstrated that most, if not all, wine nerds can't actually differentiate between "good" and "bad" wines.

A husband and wife team used to write a column on wine for the Wall Street Journal. One of the columns was about the wine parties they'd occasionally host. Each guest brought a bottle of wine which, upon arrival, was wrapped up in a brown paper bag and numbered. Everyone sampled each of the wines.

With only a few exceptions, the cheapest wines were found to be the best.

"It's true....all of it"